SAN ANTONIO — Alamo Colleges trustees Tuesday unanimously approved hiring Craig Follins to lead Northeast Lakeview College and authorized even larger salary increases for select administrators than the 3 percent raise they voted for last month.

Founding Northeast Lakeview College President Eric Reno will retire Jan. 10. Tom Cleary, Alamo Colleges' vice chancellor for planning, performance and information systems, will be acting president until Follins, 56, begins in March.

Though Follins did not attend Tuesday's meeting in person, district leaders spoke with him via Skype to welcome him on board. Follins thanked district leaders, employees and students “for their trust and confidence in me.”

“I look forward to joining the Alamo family as soon as I can,” he said. NLC enrolls about 5,400 students.

Chancellor Bruce Leslie praised Follins to the board, saying he “has a great deal of strength in workforce areas.”

In an interview prior to the trustees' vote, Sabrina Hammel, NLC's faculty senate president, said faculty members are sad to see Reno leave his post, “but we do look forward to the new opportunities that Dr. Follins will bring to Northeast Lakeview.”

The additional pay will go to those whose salaries fall below market value indicated by a compensation study. Linda Boyer-Owens, associate vice chancellor of human resources, said the compensation study was not fully completed by the November meeting.

The raises will take effect Jan. 1. College presidents, for instance, will receive a 5 percent increase worth $9,495 each.

The administrative salary increases including the previously authorized 3 percent bump will cost the district about $320,000 a year, according to board documents.

That price tag does not include Leslie's previously approved salary increases, which rose from $343,475 to $358,475 in September and will rise again, to $369,229, in January, according to his contracts.

The increases elsewhere have left adjunct faculty members feeling left out, though Boyer-Owens said adjunct wages meet the district's goal to remain third in pay among the state's largest community college systems.

Jerry Townsend, a San Antonio College journalism adjunct and past-president of the adjunct faculty council, said adjunct salaries have remained static as the workload increased because of the “tremendous amount of training and updating that adjuncts are needing to do to stay current” during a time of dramatic change.